Atlanta Negligent Security Lawyer
Property owners in Atlanta are legally responsible for taking certain measures to ensure that premises are safe for visitors. This duty includes instituting and following adequate and reasonable security measures to protect visitors from crime. Landlords, business owners, hotel proprietors, private landowners, and owners of event venues all have an obligation to keep people on their property safe from harm. If you sustained personal injury because of property owner security negligence, an Atlanta negligent security lawyer may be able to help you recover compensation for your losses.
When you have been hurt through criminal actions on another person’s property, you may be unsure if you can take legal action against the property owner or manager. At Bey & Associates, we have the legal expertise, knowledge, and experience to understand the complicated laws surrounding these cases. And we use our expertise to benefit our clients who have been hurt through negligence and wrongdoing.
Our firm’s Atlanta negligent security lawyer can meet with you and discuss your legal options after your injury. You may be entitled to seek damages like medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Our negligent security lawyer meets personally with individuals and families in Atlanta, GA, and the surrounding areas of Georgia—and we always begin with a no-cost consultation to evaluate your case and discuss how we can help.
What Is a Negligent Security Case?
Negligent security cases, like slip and fall accidents and dog bite incidents, fall under premises liability law. Premises liability laws exist to ensure that owners of buildings and grounds exercise reasonable care to keep a safe environment for visitors. Property owners should know and fix issues that can lead to injury, like unsafe animals, poisonous gas leaks, or broken stairs.
Property owners also have a duty to provide reasonable security measures to protect visitors from foreseeable crimes. In a negligent security case, the crime could have been prevented, or at least would have been far less likely to occur, if the appropriate security measures had been taken. A wide variety of actions and behaviors could be considered negligent security, depending on the circumstances. Examples of negligent security may include:
- Broken locks or access points left unattended.
- Security teams that don’t respond to emergency calls.
- Inadequately trained or untrained security guards.
- Short-staffed security teams.
- Faulty or non-existent alarm systems.
- Broken, poorly-maintained, or a lack of security cameras.
- Failure to check visitors’ IDs or an inadequate sign-in policy.
- A lack of emergency call boxes.
- Duplicate keys handed out to third parties.
- Poor lighting in potentially dangerous areas (such as a parking garage in an area known to have past incidents of theft).
- Gates, fences, windows, walls, or other broken access points that go unrepaired.
- A failure to monitor and guard against crime that has happened before.
- A lack of measures taken to safeguard against known activity that can lead to injury (such as a sports crowd or concert audience that can become violent).
What Types of Properties May Be Liable for Negligent Security?
As seen in the examples above, depending on the type of property, different types of security measures are necessary to protect visitors from foreseeable harm. What can be considered adequate security for a particular property may not be reasonable for another type of property. Your Atlanta negligent security lawyer will need to examine many elements of your case to determine if and how the property owner in question was negligent in their duties. A negligent security case can occur on many types of properties. These may include:
- Schools and universities.
- Malls, retail stores, and shopping centers.
- Convenience stores.
- Hotels and conference centers.
- Office buildings.
- Hospitals, nursing homes, and other care facilities.
- Apartment buildings and complexes.
- Parking garages.
- Event venues and sports stadiums.
- Public government-owned buildings, like courthouses and government offices.
- Museums, concert halls, and other performance centers.
How Can a Negligent Security Lawyer Helps After an Injury?
To prove that negligent security led to your injury, you and your attorney must show that the landowner failed to exercise reasonable care to protect lawful visitors from foreseeable harm. This may include a failure to warn visitors of potential damage, protect visitors from possible harm, or discover or consider past instances of crime that may pose a future risk to visitors. If, for example, a hotel with a history of violent crime on the premises does not hire security guards or install security cameras, and a guest is assaulted on hotel grounds, the hotel owner or property manager may be liable. Your negligent security lawyer will need to establish that the landowner or other responsible party breached a duty to provide reasonable security, that you were injured as a result of this breach, that you would not have been injured if not for the breached duty, and that your injury resulted in damages.
Your Atlanta negligent security lawyer will also need to examine the circumstances of why you were on the premises and the resultant duties of the owner or property manager. Under Georgia law, there are three categories of visitors to a property: invitees, licensees, and trespassers. Premises liability cases involving each of these three types of visitors are governed by different laws and imply different landowner obligations. In most examples of negligent security cases, the injured party is an invitee—a person who enters the property with owner permission, usually for economic purposes or because the premises are open to the general public. Invitees can include customers in a store, guests staying in a hotel, or audience members at a spectator event.
There is no doubt that negligent security cases can be highly complex. That’s why we as negligent security lawyer at Bey & Associates are prepared to put in the time, hard work, and creativity necessary to uncover every detail that can support your claim and help you reach a successful case outcome. We know that large companies are often unwilling to admit to the wrongdoing that led to the pain of others. It’s not uncommon for businesses and corporations to take deliberate steps to hide evidence—so they can avoid paying injured visitors what they’re legally owed.
Speak with Our Experienced Atlanta Negligent Security Lawyer
When you partner with a Bey & Associates negligent security lawyer, you receive our promise that we will cut no corners and spare no effort in getting you the justice you deserve. We are always open and honest with our clients from the beginning. We will meet with you and your family, listen to your story, and offer experienced legal guidance about the best way for you to recover your losses. If you were injured due to the negligence of a property owner who didn’t take the steps necessary to protect you from harm, we may be able to help you take legal action. Reach out to our office to schedule a free initial consultation with one of our Atlanta negligent security lawyer.